Plywood bodies, any experience?

[billiam5billion]

Well, I'm about a day away from the $100, 1989 Squier 2 Precision I brought up earlier this week, and before I bite the bullet I'd like to hear some people sound off about their experiences with plywood-body basses.

Soundclips would rule too.

 

[lousybassplayer]

Won't fit in your trunk, but are a lot less messy to chop up with a band saw. Also, don't sink in water, so that's not your best method of disposal. On the other hand, they are less likely to land you in jail if caught travelling with one rolled up in a carpet than a regular body would.

 

[billiam5billion]

Won't fit in your trunk, but are a lot less messy to chop up with a band saw. Also, don't sink in water, so that's not your best method of disposal. On the other hand, they are less likely to land you in jail if caught travelling with one rolled up in a carpet than a regular body would.

Yeah, but I could skip the whole bandsaw process and burn it. Plus, no blood.

 

[billiam5billion]

So, let me be more specific. Plywood BASS GUITAR bodies.

 

[Spinal Tapper]

^^LOL

I have a Squier II. I think the only cool thing about the body is it has a slab design. Would be really cool for a slab P project bass. The neck of the Squier II is what you really want. They made a great neck back then.

As far as the body - It's a soft wood, I've had issues with the strap buttons stripping out of the wood. I have active EMG's in mine, so it kind of take sthe "woody" tone out anyways. The bass sounds pretty generic IMO.

 

[Korladis]

My Peavey is plywood. Sounds fine.

 

[hdracer]

My experiences with plywood body's has been that they are very brite no matter what pickup is in them, heavy too.

 

[mmbongo]

Why would you bother when you can get a better bass (SX) that's made from real wood for the same money??

 

[lousybassplayer]

Sorry I wasn't more help. However, I am curious about this now, so I will watch, albeit more quietly, to the responses.

 

[wshines1892]

My Squier monstrosity is made out of plywood, has an awesome tone in my opinion too. I think the whole "tonewood" myth really depends if you believe in it or not. I think there's plenty of low end and it sounds fine to me, but I also have an active pre amp installed and don't buy into the whole tonewood thing. For 100 bucks, you can't go wrong though.

 

[Spinal Tapper]

For $100 just buy it. The neck is worth it IMO, you can always sell that body or find another one to swap it into.

I put my Squier II neck on my CIJ 62 RI Precision body. It fit like a glove and the maple looks BADASS against the oly white/tort combo

 

[Stee Flo]

Why would you bother when you can get a better bass (SX) that's made from real wood for the same money??

+1 for alder or ash sx

 

[billiam5billion]

The reason I'm not going the SX route is that-
A. I've had Squiers before, I trust the name, I like the one I still have.
B. Neck. Neck neck neck.
C. I've got a small box of Squier parts and I'd like to fool around and see what kind of monsters I can make.
D. I'm a superficial Fender geek, and the headstock decal matters. Tough titties.

 

[billiam5billion]

Oh, plus I've got a friend who has a VM precision body he might just give me, sooo.....

 

[lousybassplayer]

Oh, plus I've got a friend who has a VM precision body he might just give me, sooo.....

I'd say that would solve any plywood body concerns.

 

[billiam5billion]

I'd say that would solve any plywood body concerns.

It's a pretty big maybe, actually. I need to be able to play the plywood body if the other one falls through.

 

[Gord_oh]

my 1989 squier II is a plywood body.
its light, but actually has a good tone to it.
strung it with chromes and that thing can growl.
its personally one of my favorite basses to play because i can get the sound i want/need from it.

 

[Gord_oh]

plywood:

 

[Spinal Tapper]

IIRC the Squier II stock PU's (and body) had a pretty nice THUMP to it before I had the one with EMG's (this is my second SquierII).

Very...um...chubby sounding...?

Would probably kill with flatwounds. I have Roto flats on mine now that it has EMG's and its a great improvement from rounds with the EMG"s

 

[Ric5]

here's a link to my frankensteined SG bass. It has a plywood body. I always thought that all plywood basses were total crap and not worth playing. My sg bass has good tone. There are 2 mp3 links on the web page.

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